Already a member?

Stock Market News for March 4, 2013 - Market News

Benchmarks finished slightly higher following positive data on
the domestic front, offsetting the negative impact of
discouraging international data and spending cuts. Budgetary cuts
were implemented on Friday after Democrats and Republicans failed
to reach an agreement on curbing spending. Among the top ten
S&P 500 groups, health care stocks emerged as the biggest
gainers, while industrials were the only losers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 0.3% to close
the day at 14,089.66. The S&P 500 increased 0.2% to finish
Friday's trading session at 1,518.20. The tech-laden Nasdaq
Composite Index rose 0.3% to end at 3,169.74. The fear-gauge CBOE
Volatility Index (VIX) dropped almost 1.0% to settle at 15.36.
Consolidated volumes on the New York Stock Exchange, American
Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were roughly 6.72 billion shares, above
the daily average of 6.48 billion shares. Advancing stocks
outnumbered the declining stocks. For the 52% that advanced, 44%
declined.

The Dow Jones gained 0.6%, S&P 500 edged up 0.2% and the
Nasdaq added 0.3% over the week. Markets were very volatile
in the previous week owing to uncertainty over the Italian
elections and a debate over whether or not the $85-billion bond
buying program should be continued. Democrats and Republicans
could not reach common ground on the issue. As a result, the
government decided to implement budget cuts of $1.2 trillion over
nine years and $85 billion over a seven month period in this
fiscal year.

President Barack Obama held Republicans responsible for not
reaching common ground over the spending cuts issue. He also
said: "It's just dumb. And it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt
individual people and it's going to hurt the economy
overall."

The major indices started Friday's trading session in the red
following discouraging numbers from Europe and China. Factory
output in Europe declined for the 19
th
consecutive month. The Eurozone manufacturing index was at 47.9
while the index in Germany was at 50.3. Spain, Italy and France
were the worst hit at 46.8, 45.8 and 43.9, respectively.
Moreover, unemployment levels in Europe also increased to 11.9%
in January. Among the Eurozone economies, unemployment in Italy
is at the highest level in 21 years at 39%. Meanwhile, China
reported manufacturing numbers for February. According to the
official purchasing managers' index survey, the manufacturing
index decreased to 50.1 from 50.4 in January.

On the domestic front, encouraging manufacturing numbers
improved investor sentiment and helped benchmarks to offset
Friday's early losses. According to the Institute for Supply
Management, the manufacturing index increased to 54.2 beating the
consensus estimate of 52.6 and January's figure of 53.1. This
index has increased for the third month in a row and is at
highest level since June 2011.The New Orders Index has increased
4.5% to 57.8 from January's figure of 53.3. All the five
components of the Purchasing Manager's Index, which includes new
orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries and
inventories, registered growth for February.

Shares of a retail major, The Gap Inc. (NYSE:
GPS
) surged 2.9% after registering better-than-expected earnings for
the fiscal fourth-quarter. The company registered its best
holiday season sales in the past six years. Shares of electronic
retail giant, Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:
BBY
) gained about 4.6% as the company reported adjusted earnings
better than the Street's expectations.

Please note that once you make your selection, it will apply to all future visits to NASDAQ.com.
If, at any time, you are interested in reverting to our default settings, please select Default Setting above.

If you have any questions or encounter any issues in changing your default settings, please email isfeedback@nasdaq.com.

Please confirm your selection:

You have selected to change your default setting for the Quote Search. This will now be your default target page;
unless you change your configuration again, or you delete your
cookies. Are you sure you want to change your settings?